on friday, when the show returned to the regularly scheduled broadcast of high-stakes fiscal cliff hanging, we watched breathlessly with fingers crossed as the congressional leaders met at the white house. just before 6:00 p.m., the president came to the podium to give the latest on where we are, deal or no deal. >> i'm modestly optimistic that a deal can be achieved. >> deal or no deal? definitely or maybe. what the president may need for a win is a scene change. >> senators reid and mcconnell are discussing a potential agreement to where we can get a bipartisan bill out of the senate over to the house and done in a timely fashion so that we met the december 31st deadline. but, given how things have been working this this town, we always have to wait and see until it actually happens. >> so there you have it. there will be a deal when there is a deal. i think that is howie mandel had been at the meeting, perhaps thing things have gone better, because he could have given the nation's leaders a lesson on probability 101. this is what we know are the the his own fiscal cliff show. most of th